California COVID Crazy

Now and then, my wife and I go up to Solvang, a Danish-themed tourist town north of Santa Barbara. It does a lot of Christmas business, while the temperate climate there has always allowed outdoor dining and beer drinking. Gov Newsom's order last weekend to shut down outdoor dining over most of the state threatened the town's existence, so its city council promptly voted to except itself from the ban and requested that local law enforcement not enforce it, which of course California sheriffs have generally announced they will not do.

There's another particular twist to Solvang's situation, because Newsom added an entirely new level of regional COVID enforcement based on hospital ICU capacity, over and above an existing county-level color-coded enforcement based on COVID statistics. The problem is that Santa Barbara County, where Solvang is, has been lumped into a new Southern California region for ICU capacity.

Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties are currently considering appealing to the state to create a Central Coast region, which would separate them from being part of the Southern California region. Seceding would also mean that these counties wouldn’t be forced to react to the higher infection rates in Los Angeles and further south, the Los Angeles Times reports.

“We believe it’s reasonable to have the Central Coast as one region instead of including our county with over half the state’s population in the current Southern California region,” said Ventura County Executive Officer Mike Powers. The three counties say they will seek separation from the Southern California region if their ICU capacity stays above 15% for the next three weeks.

But of course, that puts any remedy, if it takes place, past the Chrsitmas season, so Solvang (and lots of other places) are screwed no matter what. The problem is that Newsom is simply making things up as he goes along. Hey, the color code system isn't solving a whole new problem the models have identified, but we'll leave it in place while I impose a whole new blunt instrument to sove this whole new problem.

Meanwhile, the hysterical news stories continue:

]T]he virus continued to spread rapidly across the country. Newly reported coronavirus cases topped 231,700 Friday, a new record. Hospitalizations continued to break records, as a wave of critically ill patients being admitted to hospitals around the country strains health-care systems in many parts of the U.S. And the daily death toll surpassed 3,300.

Well and good -- but every indication is that well over 90% of the population is wearing masks and social distancing. And they've been doing it for months,

The data demonstrates very clearly that Americans have overwhelmingly exceeded the masking compliance percentages needed to supposedly “flatten the curve” and reduce transmission of the virus. The problem, of course, is that the models have not matched reality. Americans are wearing masks, but the hypothesis behind universal masking has not worked to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Newsom bans outdoor dining, but it has no effect on the continuing surge. Just last night, Cuomo banned indoor dining (again), but hey, outdoor can continue. Why is it OK in New York but not in California? Well, I guess Cuomo can fix that soon enough.

The level of incompetence among our public officials is astonishing.